Bridge Glossary

Danger hand

the one opponent who may profitably gain the lead for his side.

Dangerous hand

danger hand.

Danger suit

a suit that the opponents may profitably lead; a suit in which tricks may be lost with jeopardy to the contract.

Datum

the average (or trimmed average, with one or more scores removed from each end) of scores achieved on a deal, used as an artificial standard for scoring purposes

Dead

(1) (slang) having no entry;

(2) (slang) (adjective for "seat") reopening [dead seat = reopening position, i.e., after two passes].

Deal

(1) (verb) distribute the cards;

(2) (noun) the 52 cards as distributed;

(3) (noun) the entire course of bidding and play; one unit of a bridge game.

Dealer

(1) the player who deals the cards;

(2) the player first to call.

Deck

the collection of fifty-two cards, four suits of thirteen cards each, used in bridge.

Declaration

contract.

Declarative-Interrogative

(See D-I.)

Declare

act as declarer.

Declarer

the player who first named the strain of the final contract for his or her side and who manipulates both his own cards and partner's during the play.

Deep finesse

a finesse against more than one missing card.

Defeat (the contract)

prevent declarer from taking the number of tricks required by his contract; set.

Defend

act as opponent of the declarer.

Defender

(1) an opponent of the declarer.

(2) an opponent of the side that made the first bid in the auction.

Defense

(1) declarer's opponents;

(2) the approach taken by declarer's opponents;

(3) countermeasure against an opponent's call or systemic agreement.

Defensive bid

(1) a bid made to prevent the opponents from naming the final contract of their choice; sacrifice;

(2) a bid made by a defender (meaning 2).

Defensive bidding

(1) the use of defensive bids; sacrificing;

(2) bidding from the point of view of the side not making the opening bid.

Delayed

not done immediately in bidding or play. [Examples: Delayed support is support given on a later round of bidding. A delayed duck is the deliberate or necessary loss of a trick after some other activity, such as a squeeze, is performed.]

Demand bid

forcing bid, especially a strong opening two-bid.

Denial bid

a bid that shows weakness or lack of fit.

Denomination

strain; one of the four suits or notrump.

Dentist's Coup

the extraction of a safe exit card from an opponent's hand; (by extension) the removal of a card that allows an opponent a safe play.

DEPO

acronym for Double Even Pass Odd, a method for showing aces (or key cards) after interference over Blackwood (or key-card Blackwood).

Deschapelles coup

the sacrifice of a high card to create an entry to partner's hand.

Deuce

two-spot; the lowest-ranking card of a suit.

Devil's bedposts

the four of clubs.

Devil's coup

(1) an elopement that denies the opponents a trump trick they would get if trumps were led;

(2) (as commonly used) such an elopement when the opposing trump holding is exactly five cards including the queen and jack.

Develop

establish.

D.I.

(for declarative-interrogative) describing a four-notrump bid used as a general slam try.

Diagram

a chart showing position of the players and the cards they hold.

Diamonds

the third-highest-ranking suit; symbol: .

Direction

(1) the location of a player at a bridge table: North, East, South or West;

(2) one of the partnerships, North-South or East-West.

Directional asking-bid

a bid, usually a cue-bid, that attempts to make partner the declarer at notrump

Direct position

immediately following in clockwise rotation.

Director

the supervisor of a duplicate bridge event.

Discard

(1) (verb) play a plain-suit card of a suit other than the one led;

(2) (noun) a card thus played.

Discouraging card

a card played by a defender as a signal to partner not to lead, or to discontinue leading, a particular suit, or to suggest weakness in the suit.

Discovery play

a play designed to gain information about the unseen cards.

Distribution

(1) the number of cards in each suit held by one player; [5=4=3=1 distribution = five spades, four hearts, one diamond and three clubs]

(2) the number of cards of a particular suit held by each player;

(3) (slang) the lie of the adversely held cards.

Distribution points

valuation points awarded because of the trick-taking potential of long or short suits at trump contracts.

Distributional values

playing strength held by virtue of long and short suits.

Ditch

(slang) discard (usually a loser).

Dog

(1) (slang) (noun) a very weak hand, or one that is very weak for the previous bidding;

(2) (verb) [usually with "it"] bid conservatively.

DONT

a defense against one-notrump openings: double = one-suiter; two spades = natural; two of another suit = that suit and some higher-ranking suit.

DOPE

acronym for Double 0dd Pass Even, a method for showing aces (or key cards) after interference over Blackwood (or key-card Blackwood).

DOPI

acronym for Double 0 Pass 1, a method for showing aces (or key cards) after interference over Blackwood (or key-card Blackwood).

Double

(1) (noun) a call that increases scoring values.

(2) (verb) to make the call described in (1).

Double-barrelled Stayman

two-way Stayman.

Double-dummy

(1) (adjective) with all four hands exposed;

(2) (slang) (adjective) action taken as if in sight of all four hands, i.e., perfect for the lie of the cards;

(3) (slang) (verb) criticize for not acting as though having seen all four hands. [Example: "My partner double-dummied me for not starting clubs first."]

Double finesse

a finesse against two missing cards.

Double into game

a double of a contract that is not a game undoubled but is when doubled.

Double jump

a bid one level above a minimum jump in the same strain. [Extends to Double Jump-overcall, Double Jump-preference, Double Jump-raise, Double Jump-rebid and Double Jump-shift.]

Double key-card

key-card Blackwood in which the kings of two suits are counted as key cards.

Double knockout

a form of tournament in which a team is not eliminated until it has lost two matches.

Double negative

a further negative by a player who has already taken a negative action.

Double raise

bid two levels higher in the suit named by partner.

Double squeeze

a squeeze in which each opponent is squeezed between two suits.

Doubler

one who doubles.

Doubleton

a holding of two cards in a suit.

Down

set; defeated.

Down the line

(1) describing bidding the higher of equivalent features; [Advancing one spade to a takeout double of a one-diamond opening with four cards in each major is bidding down the line.]

(2) describing playing the highest of available cards.

Draw

remove from the possession of the opponents. [As in "draw trumps" (take away the opposing trumps).]

Drive out

force an opponent to part with (a certain card or cards).

Drive to

(slang) reach the bidding level of. [Example: "drive to game" means ensure that the bidding reaches at least game.]

Drop

fall on a trick;

(slang) lose; give away through error.

Drury

(1) originally, a two-club response by a passed hand to show maximum values;

(2) in its more modern form, often called Drury-fit, a two-club response by a passed hand to show a fit for partner's major in a hand too strong for a single raise.

Drury-fit

See: Drury (meaning 2).

Dry

(slang) without any other cards in the suit.

Dub

(slang) a poor player.

Duck

(1) play a low card when holding a higher one;

(2) surrender (a trick).

Duckling (also Ugly Duckling)

hand with 5-3-3-2 distribution.

Duffer

(slang) a poor player.

Duke

(1) (slang) very strong hand.

(2) See also Iron Duke.

Duke of Cumberland deal

a swindler's deal from whist, in which the mark holds all top cards in all suits except one, in which he holds king-jack-nine (or, in one version where the whist dealer is expected to lead a trump, king-jack-nine-seven) but cannot take a trick with the weak suit as trumps.

Dumb bidder

a device, consisting of a board with listed calls placed in the middle of the table, to permit silent bidding.

Dummy

(1) partner of declarer;

(2) that player's cards, exposed on the table after the opening lead.

Dummy hand

Dummy (2).

Dummy play

play of the cards by declarer.

Dummy reversal

ruffing with the partnership's longer trump holding until the opposite hand has more trumps.

Dump

(1) (slang) discard;

(2) (slang) lose deliberately.

Duplicate bridge

form of bridge in which two or more sets of participants have an opportunity to play the same deals.

Duplication of distribution

both partners having the same suit lengths.

Duplication of values

both partners having strong values in the same suit, generally to their side's disadvantage.